Armed felon shot inside Wisconsin Children's Hospital

Nov. 14, 2013
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BREAKING NEWS / Jerry Mosemak, USA TODAY

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

by Michael Winter, USA TODAY

Police shot a fugitive felon inside Children's Hospital of Wisconsin on Thursday after he pulled a gun while visiting the neonatal unit, the Milwaukee County sheriff said.

Sheriff David Clarke Jr. said no infants or staff were injured. The wounded suspect was taken to another hospital in the complex in the suburb of Wauwatosa. He did not name the suspect or describe his wounds.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, citing law enforcement sources, identified the suspect as 22-year-old Ashanti Hendricks, who was wanted for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The paper said he was shot in the wrist.

Clarke said at a news conference that officers went to the seventh floor of the hospital about noon after being tipped off at 11:11 a.m. that the suspect would be there. The suspect was holding a baby when officers approached and said he was under arrest. The suspect put down the baby and fled down a hallway, flashing a .40-caliber Glock and turning toward officers as he ran.

Clarke said officers fired several shots; the suspect did not fire. It was not immediately clear whether the suspect is the infant's father.

"This is not a situation where a guy came in to shoot somebody," he said.

One witness, however, told the Journal Sentinel of being in an elevator with a mother clutching her newborn and shouting into her phone, "He's going to shoot my baby!"

When they reached the seventh floor, the Newborn Progressive Care Unit, the mother rushed out but was pushed back in by an officer, who pushed the "down" button.

"She just kept screaming and screaming," Samiee Cornish said, adding that the loudspeaker announced the hospital was on lockdown. The lockdown was lifted about two hours later.

It's not clear whether the mother knew the gunman.

Another terrified parent was about to feed his 1-month-old, prematurely born son when nurses told him about the gunman. He and several others were then escorted into a bathroom.

"I'm upset about this world," Carolee Malen, an emergency room social worker, told the paper. "You can't go to a spa, you can't go to a mall, you can't go to a Batman movie, and now it's Children's Hospital."